Mess at Saint-Laurent school | “This school should be under supervision”

No lockers, the cafeteria closed last week, young people losing school hours because the teachers, like the students, weren’t given the right timetable.

Louise Leduc
The Press

According to a teacher, “it’s a mess” at Saint-Laurent high school, this Montreal establishment already upset since February by accusations of sexual assault against a manager and two basketball coaches.

“This school should have been under guardianship for six months”, summarizes a staff member who confided in The Press.

As the schedules are incorrect, it happens that there are more than 50 young people in a room designed to accommodate 25 students. The “excess” teenagers sometimes remained standing at the back of the class, before being moved to other rooms. It also happened that supervisors were called in for reinforcements in the absence of teachers who themselves had not had the right schedule or who refused to work under such conditions.

No cafeteria

As the cafeteria was not open last week – a news transmitted at the very last minute – employees went to buy food in supermarkets for students who normally have free meals due to the deprivation of their parents . And that’s not counting the students who walk around with their bags containing their books, their lunch and their clothes for physical education – which is normally prohibited for security reasons – because they don’t have had a record.

“Several members challenged us,” explains David Hamel, interim president of the West Montreal Teachers’ Union.

From 3^e secondary, continues David Hamel, teachers normally have no more than 32 students at a time. Last week, due to the mess, he confirms that groups have sometimes exceeded 50 students.

The refusal to teach is not an instruction, he adds, but the union has advised teachers to quickly notify their managers of the problem as soon as such ratios are exceeded.

Departure of the director’s right arm

According to various people interviewed, the mess comes in particular from the hasty departure of Daniel Lacasse, who was not only coach of the basketball team. The one who was accused of sexual assault (like two other coaches) took care of the small week schedules of students and teachers, the cafeteria, the tasks of each, etc. He was actually the headmaster’s right-hand man and the school’s administrative honcho.

Annick Lartigau, president of the Saint-Laurent school governing board, also explains that the absence of Daniel Lacasse, who was at the heart of all school management, is very much felt from a strict point of view. from a management perspective. That someone has so much control of the school may seem precious when things are going well, she notes, but when they’re gone and the transfer of knowledge hasn’t happened, it’s very complicated.

Mr. Lacasse finding himself in court, the schedules of students and teachers were entrusted to computer programmers, according to what Mr.^me Lartigau knew. It appears that “computer programming has its limits” and that the programmers did not have in hand all the subtleties of the school (which is, among other things, divided into two buildings between which teachers may be called upon to move).

The schedules would have been given at the last minute to the management, who noticed many errors, without having time to correct them.

No interview with the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center (CSSMB) or with the management of Saint-Laurent school was possible. The answer came by email.

The media service pointed out that “a return to secondary school is a complex operation that requires multiple adjustments. At Saint-Laurent High School, as in other large schools, a period of adaptation is necessary, particularly in terms of staff members’ schedules,” reads the email sent by Chrystine Loriaux, Director of communications from the CSSMB.

The CSSMB adds that 80 new students registered late, that the school is welcoming 130 more students this year, etc.

On the website of the governing board of the Saint-Laurent school, we cannot find the names of the people who constitute it and on Monday, no minutes had been published there since May 2021. Its president, Mr.^me Lartigau, ensures that everything was done on time and in full respect of the laws, but that the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center also had computer problems on this side.

The school service center said Tuesday afternoon that “these documents required a signature before being put online” and that this would be done shortly.

With Alice Girard-Bossé, The Press